With another television season officially in the books, savvy viewers and analysts now look to the Nielsen averages to determine who the true ratings winners were. Of course the overall ranking never matter as much as the rankings of television’s top 18-49 series (more on that tomorrow), but regardless, it’s always interesting to see what franchises are still holding strong in the American television market, and which are starting to break through. This season, like so many before it, comes with little surprise but a whole lot of potential for seasons to come.

Upon final tally of live + same day time shifted viewing, clearly dominated with five of the top ten highest rated series on television (all scripted) including The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Person of Interest and Blue Bloods. However, despite controlling 50% of the top ranking slots, the network did not land in the number one spot. That award went to a much more obvious contender.

Not surprisingly, the number one rated television program of the season was NFL Sunday Night Football on NBC. In addition to its sporting giant, the network secured itself the seventh and ninth spots on the list with both weekly airings of The Voice, as well as scoring sixth place with television's highest rated new series, The Blacklist. The only spot to not go to CBS or NBC this year was fifth place, which went to ABC and Dancing with the Stars.

In truth, these rankings are just about what are to be expected in the overall data. CBS regularly dominates the market, and NBC made major headway this season thanks to the triple-threat of The Blacklist, The Voice and NFL Football. It will be interesting to see how things shake-out next year with The Blacklist shifting time-slots and CBS now taking full control of NFL Thursdays in the fall – though do expect The Blacklist to be aided in its final average next year by its upcoming post-Super Bowl slot in 2015.

Based on these numbers, there’s little else to say on the overall television market. Minus one new series, nothing fresh was able to edge in massively on the top ten slots (though ABC’s Resurrection did just miss the mark at number eleven). That all said, we could start seeing CBS begin to lose grip on all its top spots if other networks continue to build and grow around it as they did this season. In the end, based on the data, broadcast television is still very much a player in the overall small screen market, but major hits certainly come few and far between these days.